The Collecting Bug

[Tengu]

Have you any collections?

I have been a collector as long as I can remember; some of it long gone, and some I still have.

The books hardly counts as a collection. More a lifestyle really.

At the moment it is;

Cornish Seashells (childhood ambition furfilled. Beachcombing)
Cowrie shells (Who can resist shiny?)
Hornware (part of my studies)
Horn themed postcards. (An offshoot of the above.)
A vast quantity of Warhammer (Been doing it 30 years. One day will paint them.)
Decorative Cornish Stones (Some gemstones...pretty much anything that could be used in jewelry.)
Britains Farm Animals (reliving my childhood)
Britains Zoo Animals (From my childhood)

I dont think I will set up a museum just yet. But collections often turn into museums if they get big enough. There is always the risk.

Part of my Horn collection is currently in Newquay museum...They are doing a lot on plastic pollution, so my horn is now `Life before Plastic`...

 

[Robson Valley]

I collect salt. There are many artisan salt producers all over the world.
Distinctions in crystaline shapes, additives (eg smoke) and natural impurities.
I encourage guests to pick out anything they fancy and use a little.
Kurlansky: A World History of Salt, is really essential reading.

 

[Janne]

My parents lived for a couple of decades close to the salinas outside Torrevieja in Spain.
The pink Flamingoes flavoured the salt well...

 

[Robson Valley]

Every place in Britain, in the old days, with a place name that ended in -wich, was a salt-making center.
No country ever requires the makers of evaporated sea salt to have an analysis done to print a label with a list of
ingredients and impurities. Even from the Murray River, Australia (pink color).
Cyprus Flake is hollow white pyramids as a "finishing' salt. Absolutely beautiful.

 

[Janne]

We should be grateful for that. Nobody wants to read that the handcrafted, Organic salt they paid 1000% more than the basic Morton’s , is full of sea borne chemicals, plastic particles and droplets of crude oil...

We have two ‘salt cellars’ on the table.
One in the form of a Ptarmigan, made by a very famous Saame artist from reindeer antler, then a larger one, a Ptarmigan, made by his son, from a large Moose antler
Special order.
The small spoons are also made from antler.

They contain Iodine enriched salt.

 

[Woody girl]

I collect honeypots especially if they are bear shaped. Don't ask me why, but I do love my winnie the pooh honeypots. I also collect kilner jars which get used for pickling and preserves.
Books are everywhere in my home. They are part of the furniture of a home. I do need to start collecting some more book cases though

 

[Nice65]

Every place in Britain, in the old days, with a place name that ended in -wich, was a salt-making center.
No country ever requires the makers of evaporated sea salt to have an analysis done to print a label with a list of
ingredients and impurities. Even from the Murray River, Australia (pink color).
Cyprus Flake is hollow white pyramids as a "finishing' salt. Absolutely beautiful.

That’s an interesting thing to collect. I mentioned recently the extreme saltiness of the Himalayan pink salt in the biltong thread on ROF, I had no idea how salty it is.

Your Cypress Flake sounds similar to our Malden Sea Salt, hollow pyramids. It’s very beautiful. I once had a girlfriend from Malden and bought a packet from the factory shop. Because it hadn’t been packed and handled almost all of it was fascinating pyramids. Lovely stuff, my go to salt for sprinkling on roast potatoes just before they go in the oven.

 

[Billy-o]

I don't know if I ever actually collected things for that purpose of collecting alone, but I have ended up with some collections.

I looked for a couple of decent knives ... a bare few, which I did eventually find .. but the process of finding them means I now have an awful lot of knives that I can't seem to make myself move on. I wanted to listen to a lot of classical music at one time and the cheapest way to do that was by buying second hand vinyl. So, I have a lot of that too. Rucksacks ... admittedly I am not as afflicted as comrades here, on ROF and other places ... but I do have more backpacks than things to put in them. Same with outdoorsy jackets but, strangely, not trousers, boots or gloves.

I have a lot of hats, which are more totems than anything else as I have a fast running metabolism and am usually hot just by standing up. I have books jammed into every nook in the house and office, too .. but that is just a professional deformation of character.

I keep thinking I am done with knives .. but then, like this morning for instance, I'll inadvertently see a Tina Pruner or a GEC Bullbuster and just go all weak at the wallet.

I'd like a collection of money and apartments dotted around the world.

 

[Janne]

I collect Graal glass by Edward Hald
Art Deco vases, statues and table clocks, French, Czech and Austrian.
Watches, modern but also WW2 Navigators and pilots watched.
Saame wood, leather and antler work
WW1 litterature written and printed before WW2

My main collections is in Memories though..

 

[Robson Valley]

Salts have stories about their origins. They are worth researching, particularly the preparation techniques.
The packets come in all sizes so a collection to add variety to your food is not expensive at all.

Good salt grinders have ceramic cutters so they don't corrode. I don't think they are a bargain at all.

My best salt grinder is a very shallow mortar and pestle, carved from green serpentine stone.
Charity shop special, still in it's box, didn't look like it had ever been used = $5.00
You can grind as little as 1/4 tsp for your immediate need and tip the rest back into the jar.

I got 3 new salts in the post late last week.
Mediterranean salt but with apple smoke, cedar smoke and dried/crushed wild berry.
Fried eggs are an excellent background for taste-testing salts.

Nothing to it and you might accidently eat well in the process.

 

[Klenchblaize]

Records
Knives
Books

K

 

[Toddy]

Books and moving silver charms. I have a bracelet that now weighs so much I could brain someone with it if I weren't careful when wearing it. My first charm was given to me by my great aunt when I was five. Son1's a pretty fair jeweller and he makes me some now, but I get one every birthday and Christmas from family.
Thimbles and spindle whorls. I still have my very first thimbles, tiny little infant sized ones never had a daughter to pass them along to though, but I do like honest good usable thimbles, not those weird collectors china things.
Spindle whorls folks give me. Random finds from field walking, out of context, and everything from Roman to medieval.
Miniature sea shells fill a jar I kept meaning to find tiny pieces if washed seaglass to stir through them.

 

[Chalkflint]

I did collect old beer glasses until they took over the house and the wife made me get rid of them.
I am now helping my young son with his collection of old comics and annuals.
He collects old Beano annuals and has most of them from modern day going back to 1968.
He also to my great delight has a large collection of Judge Dredd annuals and magazines (reliving my youth).
(Always on the look out for more. Cash or permission in my woodland)
Chalkflint

 

[Bishop]

Collections..oh $diety Mother!
Thirty years ago I was agonising over what to get mother for christmas when she had a full on rant about everybody giving her bubble bath last time around. It was not so much the harsh reminder she could of cheerfully murdered us all as kids many times over. Rather it was the first time we had ever heard her swear, I cannot repeat exactly what she said, merely tell you that the boot-camp opening from Full Metal Jacket paled by comparison. Since then for christmas, birthdays, anniversary's, Mothers Day and all other special occasions I have bought her novelty cruet sets, being relatively inexpensive and typically made in small batches makes them unique for the most part. She found this sweet & quirky and bought a few herself. Then word got around she was collecting them... decades later nobody is sure just how many there are now. The last time I asked all she would say was she needed to buy a smaller car so it could fit into the garage. What's truly terrifying is upon her death says she's going to do a Mafia style hit from beyond the grave and leave them all to me!

 

[Woody girl]

I forgot my collection of tintagel dragons eye pottery. I used to camp at tintagel every year and pick up a piece or two each time I went . Unfortunately it all got smashed so I had to start again. The pottery is now defunct and I still need some plates and other bits to finish my set. There are plenty of mugs and other small bits for sale on line but I can never find any plates. If anyone has any or stumbles across them somewhere. ....I'm willing to buy.
I started this collection in the 1970s. Each bit held a memory of a holiday. I know that I won't have holiday memories of any particular piece that I buy now but it will complete my dinner and tea set... and remind me of kind people which is just as good.
I would put up a pic if I knew how but it's fairly easy to find what I'm on about if you Google tintagel dragons eye pottery. Any help to complete my collection before I kick the bucket would be fantastic.

 

[Tengu]

This is a Cornish studio pottery, yes?

My boss at the museum is pretty knowlegable, Ill ask him.

 

[Woody girl]

This is a Cornish studio pottery, yes?

My boss at the museum is pretty knowlegable, Ill ask him.

Yes it is studio pottery. Thanks

 

[daveO]

Someone told me the difference between collecting and hoarding is the labelling. I don't label or catalogue anything so I guess I'm a hoarder.

I've got the magpie instinct I think and tend to collect anything I find interesting. My office is a curiosity cabinet of random, valueless stuff. Mostly it's natural history objects that I've found or been given but if I like it then it finds its way onto a shelf. The most recent acquisition is a load of late victorian bottles and jars. A building site I'm involved with turned up an old rubbish tip buried under where a garage is supposed to be going. No one was very interested in what was dug up so I brought anything intact home with me. I have started to collect old bricks though if they've got the old brickworks name still visible on them. I plan to make a display wall out of them eventually with all the names facing outwards.

 

[Janne]

You become a hoarder ( and an article in Daily Mail) if you collection collapses and suffocates you.
Before that you are a collector...

 

[santaman2000]

I’m a failure. By the time my grandfather was my age he had amassed two coffee cans full of assorted screwdrivers.